So what’s going to happen in 2019?

The trouble with such musings is that we’re all likely to forecast what we want to happen rather than what will happen.

Here’s what we’d like to happen.

1/The Google/Facebook duopoly controlling digital advertising will be rent asunder, with other media (or ‘platforms’) getting a break. Wrong – although it might become a tri-opoly (if such a thing exists) including Amazon.

2/Advertisers will rediscover the power of creative broadcast advertising. Wrong, some of them might but the siren-like attractions of personal targeting will continue to win out.

3/Ad agencies (in particular the holding companies) will insist on a fair price for a fair “scope of work.” Nope, they will always cut their cloth to get a deal.

4/Media agencies will forget about being content factories (their way of eating ad agencies’ lunch) because they’re not very good at it. And stick to their last: planning and buying. Nope, they need the incremental income.

5/Nobody will write about WPP for six months apart from reporting its quarterly numbers. Wrong, we all need the readers (guilty as charged.)

About Stephen Foster

Stephen is a former editor of Marketing Week and London Evening Standard advertising columnist. He wrote City Republic for Brand Republic and is a partner in communications consultancy The Editorial Partnership.